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Temporal Dynamics of the Natural and Trimmed Angiosperm Zostera marina L. (Potamogetonales:Zosteraceae), and an Effective Technique for Transplantation of Long Shoots in a Temperate Tidal Zone (Northern China)

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Abstract

In China, the coastal eelgrass Zostera marina has decreased dramatically since the 1980s as a result of human-induced habitat deterioration. From March 2009 to June 2010, we investigated the temporal changes in biometric and biomass features of Z. marina from a declined meadow owing to fisheries mechanical destruction in tidal Qingdao Bay, and we conducted an in situ transplantation experiment to develop an effective technique for transplantation of long shoots. Results showed that shoot height and biomass exhibited strong temporal variation, with a maximum shoot height (128.50 ± 17.63 cm) being recorded in June 2009 and minimum value (29.18 ± 3.89 cm) in January 2010. Shoot density in winter (311 ± 51 shoots m−2) was significantly lower than that in summer (545 ± 113 shoots m−2). N and P contents in the rhizome were significantly lower than those in the leaf and leaf sheath. Low C/P ratios (248.82 ± 81.7, 199.8 ± 87.5 and 289.2 ± 95.1 in leaves, leaf sheaths and rhizomes, respectively) suggested P enrichment of the eelgrass. The field recovery experiment showed that the eelgrass shoots had a high resilience even when most leaves were sheared. Long shoots were not suitable to be directly used for transplantation; however, when they were cut shorter (e.g. 18 cm) with most leaves removed, the transplant survivorship reached a high level (ca. 90%). It is suggested that transplantation may be practiced when seagrass meadows (donor beds) reached high density and biomass, and in this case long shoots should be trimmed short before transplanting as a way to improve early transplant success.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Shifu Sun for his help in the field survey. This research was supported by the Key Research and Development Project of Shandong Province (2017GHY15111), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 41606192/41176140), the National Key R&D Program of China (2017YFF0206905), the NSFC-Shandong Joint Fund for Marine Science Research Centers (U1606404), the Key Research Project of Frontier Sciences of CAS (QYZDB-SSW-DQC041-1), the Science and Technology Service Network Initiative of CAS (KFJ-STS-ZDTP-023), the National Science & Technology Basic Work Program (2015FY110600), the Creative Team Project of the Laboratory for Marine Ecology and Environmental Science from the Qingdao National Laboratory for Marine Science and Technology (LMEES-CTSP-2018-1), and the Taishan Scholars Program (Distinguished Taishan Scholars).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Guangxi Key Laboratory of Marine Biotechnology, Guangxi Institute of Oceanology, Beihai, 536000, People’s Republic of China

    Xujia Liu

  2. CAS Key Laboratory of Marine Ecology and Environmental Sciences, Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Qingdao, 266071, China

    Xujia Liu, Yi Zhou, Bingjian Liu & Xiaomei Zhang

  3. College of Fisheries, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, 430070, China

    Xujia Liu

  4. Laboratory for Marine Ecology and Environmental Science, Qingdao National Laboratory for Marine Science and Technology, Qingdao, 266237, China

    Yi Zhou, Bingjian Liu & Xiaomei Zhang

  5. Center for Ocean Mega-Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Qingdao, 266071, China

    Yi Zhou, Bingjian Liu & Xiaomei Zhang

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  1. Xujia Liu
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Liu, X., Zhou, Y., Liu, B. et al. Temporal Dynamics of the Natural and Trimmed Angiosperm Zostera marina L. (Potamogetonales:Zosteraceae), and an Effective Technique for Transplantation of Long Shoots in a Temperate Tidal Zone (Northern China). Wetlands 39, 1043–1056 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13157-019-01157-8

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